The second of two panels on memory dynamics in the ongoing war in Ukraine looks specifically at the impact of the large-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. The panel considers memory narratives and monuments, and includes presentations based on research in both Ukrainian-controlled and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. The papers are connected by an interest in narrative and symbolic memory frameworks shaped during the Soviet period, whose meanings were already contested in the three decades since Ukraine's independence. In times of war these frameworks are used by Ukrainians as well as the invaders (and their collaborators) to relate the ongoing conflict to narratives about the past, yet they are themselves significantly modified in the process.

Ekaterina Markovich (co-author: Olga Zabalueva)

A Real-Time Memory War: Adversive Mnemonic Cultures Inspired by the work of the Forensic Architecture research agency

In this paper we aim to uncover the layers of memory work in documenting and communicating human rights violations and humanitarian efforts in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Since the Russian full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, the mnemonic cultures on both sides of the conflict have experienced attitudinal and discursive transformations. There is a real-time construction of collective memory as personal stories; evidence of violence on occupied territories and horrifying images and videos of violations of human rights, rules of war, and international law are being shared and spread through the Internet. They shape public opinion which in turn affects states' behaviour and international law and will be used as evidence in future trials. Yet the same images, videos, and stories are being turned 180 degrees by Russian propaganda in order to create a completely different memoryscape. These stories shape not only the current but also the future perception of the events of this war and its place in history, with both sides appealing to memory politics and specifically to the period of the Second World War. The notion of "memory wars" is usually applied to the collective memory of the past, whereas the current war is also fought in real time over how it will be remembered. In this war we are witnessing the emergence of two completely opposite sets of memories about the same events, often inspired by the exact same primary sources. The war is not only being conducted on the ground or in cyberspace (as an information war), but also inside the minds of people who will be referred to as "witnesses of the war" in the future. This paper focuses on conflicting narratives surrounding evidence of the atrocities and how they are being formed and ingrained in collective memories (including social media gatekeeping cases) to create further references and benchmarks for claiming something as "false" or "true."

Mischa Gabowitsch & Mykola Homanyuk

Monuments in Times of War: Soviet and Post-Soviet War Memorials in Russian-Occupied Ukraine after February 2022

The full-scale Russian attack on Ukraine since February 2022 has opened a new chapter in the history of Soviet and post-Soviet war memorials. In several post-socialist countries where Soviet war memorials had previously been largely exempt from iconoclastic policies, they are now being removed due to the perceived association with the Russian invasion. In Ukraine, some Soviet-era monuments have been removed or destroyed while others are being reinterpreted in support of the Ukrainian war effort. This presentation focuses on what has happened to war memorials on the frontlines and in occupied territory. Here, some monuments have been damaged in the fighting. The occupying forces have dismantled many memorials to Ukrainians who have died fighting Russian and Russian-backed forces since 2014, sometimes provoking resistance from local residents. At the same time the occupiers have often made a show of renovating and honoring Soviet-era monuments to World War II in line with their claim that such monuments had been neglected by the Ukrainian authorities. The paper presents findings from both online research and fieldwork carried out under occupation in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine. It explores how wars bestow new meanings upon monuments to earlier wars: something that happened to Tsarist-era monuments during World War II and is happening now in turn to monuments honoring that war.

Julie Deschepper

The Return of Lenin. (Ab)Uses of Monumental Heritage in Russian-Occupied Ukraine

Alongside terrifying targeted destructions of Ukrainian cultural heritage, the Russian army and the new Russian-installed local administrators have been using the public space and material references to the Soviet past to impose their authority. This paper explores the (ab)uses of Soviet heritage in Russian-occupied territories, focusing on the monumental heritage of Lenin. On April 18, 2022, in the south-east of Ukraine, in Russian-occupied Heniches'k, a statue of Lenin "returned" to the central square of the city, in front of the local administrative building. Why was this a return? Because this monument had been previously removed in 2015 during the "Leninopad" - literally "Leninfall," a process by which monuments dedicated to the Bolshevik leader were transformed, moved, and destroyed in Ukraine in the wake of the Euromaidan protests in 2013-2014. In 2022, during the full-scale invasion, this monument was entirely rebuilt, from scratch a material symbol of the conquest of the city and the "return" of Russia. If transforming the public space, and first and foremost erecting statues, is a common practice to impose control over a territory, the choice to rebuild a Lenin - a highly contested political figure in Russia -, in place of the one that had been destroyed some seven years earlier, illustrates the extent of the instrumentalization and weaponisation of history in Russia. Addressing the fate of Lenin statues in other Ukrainian territories, the paper will more broadly emphasize how much material heritage plays a role in the relationships to power, especially during wars.